Companies told to increase travel budgets

Every dollar strategically spent on business travel yields a return on investment of $20. This is one of the messages of a new report by the GBTA Foundation, the Global Business Travel Association’s research division, and American Express Global Business Travel. The report, predominantly aimed at the US market but relevant to the global travel trade, advises companies in all sectors to boost their travel budgets by an average of 4% in order to optimise sales revenues.The report, based on research conducted over 10 years, claims that “the 20:1 ratio has been steady over the past couple of years; prior to 2008 the ratio was 16:1.” Companies cut back too much on travel during the economic downturn and this actually contributed to the severity of the recession, the report says – “a self-inflicted wound that made the Great Recession of 2007-2009 worse than it had to be.”Banking, pharmaceuticals and retail tend to be among the sectors of the economy that under-spend most severely on business travel, restricting their possibilities for maximum growth.BusinessTravelNews[photo courtesy KLM Royal Dutch Airlines]